PARIS // The 2009 Tour de France will have a tough mountain stage on its penultimate day in a tradition-busting innovation that could complicate Lance Armstrong's possible return.
The route, aimed at keeping suspense going to the end of the 106-year-old event, was unveiled today in Paris. The steep climb up the notorious Mont Ventoux may pose a particular challenge for the seven-time Tour champion Armstrong, who has never won on the rocky slopes of the fabled ascent in the south of France.
"The Ventoux will blow things up," predicted Jean-Francois Pescheux, who helped design the route as director of competitions for ASO, the company that organises the Tour.
Armstrong is making a comeback after three years of retirement, but it is still unclear whether he will race in the Tour.
Often, the Tour finishes with a time trial on the penultimate day, deciding the race winner before what is largely a ceremonial ride into Paris on the last day.
The three-week 2009 Tour will cover 3,445 kilometres (2,141 miles) and scale 20 major mountain climbs - slightly less than the average of 22-23 climbs in recent years.
Mont Ventoux will be the 20th of the 21 stages. After 19 days of racing, the climb on which a British rider died in the 1960s promises to be a test for tired legs and minds, and possibly decisive in selecting the winner.
From its July 4 start in the principality of Monaco, the Tour will go across flatlands of the Mediterranean coast to Barcelona, Spain, for the first week and then head sharply uphill into the Pyrenees.
The first Pyrenean stage, to the Arcalis mountain station, is also the longest of this year's Tour, at 224km (139 miles).
The long ride and steep uphill finish should give the first clear indication of the form of the favourites. After two more trying but likely not decisive days of ascents in the mountains that form the border between France and Spain, the Tour then goes through central and eastern France before tackling the Alps.
Three days of climbs in those mountains, including the Tour's high-point at 2,473 metres (8,113 feet) on the Grand Saint-Bernard pass, followed by a time trial should further separate out the field, ahead of the race going into a final Mont Ventoux nail-biter.
Armstrong initially said when he announced his comeback last month that he would aim at an eighth Tour victory, stunning the cycling world.
But a less-than-enthusiastic response from Tour organisers and renewed discussion in France on the question of whether Armstrong doped on way to his record seven wins from 1999-2005 - he insists he did not - are now reportedly giving the rider pause for thought.
He has said that he will race the Giro d'Italia in May but is sounding less certain of riding the Tour in July. The Tour director Christian Prudhomme again today offered only a guarded response to the prospect of Armstrong's return to the race, saying it would be "neither a good nor bad thing" for the Tour.
Pescheux expressed doubts that the 37-year-old cyclist could come back after three years away from cycling.
"I think he will rapidly realise that things are not the same," Pescheux said.
Pescheux also added, however, that Armstrong always managed to adapt to the yearly route changes at previous Tours and said the Texan should be able to do so again in 2009 should he chose to race.
For 2009, organisers have revived a feature, a team time trial, that had fallen out of favour in recent years. The highly technical discipline will be run on Day Four.
But the relatively short distance, 38km (23.6 miles), should not open huge time gaps between the race favourites.
*AP
The Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela
Edited by Sahm Venter
Published by Liveright
Company%20Profile
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Who are the Sacklers?
The Sackler family is a transatlantic dynasty that owns Purdue Pharma, which manufactures and markets OxyContin, one of the drugs at the centre of America's opioids crisis. The family is well known for their generous philanthropy towards the world's top cultural institutions, including Guggenheim Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, Tate in Britain, Yale University and the Serpentine Gallery, to name a few. Two branches of the family control Purdue Pharma.
Isaac Sackler and Sophie Greenberg were Jewish immigrants who arrived in New York before the First World War. They had three sons. The first, Arthur, died before OxyContin was invented. The second, Mortimer, who died aged 93 in 2010, was a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma. The third, Raymond, died aged 97 in 2017 and was also a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma.
It was Arthur, a psychiatrist and pharmaceutical marketeer, who started the family business dynasty. He and his brothers bought a small company called Purdue Frederick; among their first products were laxatives and prescription earwax remover.
Arthur's branch of the family has not been involved in Purdue for many years and his daughter, Elizabeth, has spoken out against it, saying the company's role in America's drugs crisis is "morally abhorrent".
The lawsuits that were brought by the attorneys general of New York and Massachussetts named eight Sacklers. This includes Kathe, Mortimer, Richard, Jonathan and Ilene Sackler Lefcourt, who are all the children of either Mortimer or Raymond. Then there's Theresa Sackler, who is Mortimer senior's widow; Beverly, Raymond's widow; and David Sackler, Raymond's grandson.
Members of the Sackler family are rarely seen in public.
Rafael Nadal's record at the MWTC
2009 Finalist
2010 Champion
Jan 2011 Champion
Dec 2011 Semi-finalist
Dec 2012 Did not play
Dec 2013 Semi-finalist
2015 Semi-finalist
Jan 2016 Champion
Dec 2016 Champion
2017 Did not play
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Profile Periscope Media
Founder: Smeetha Ghosh, one co-founder (anonymous)
Launch year: 2020
Employees: four – plans to add another 10 by July 2021
Financing stage: $250,000 bootstrap funding, approaching VC firms this year
Investors: Co-founders
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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RESULTS
6.30pm: Emirates Holidays Maiden (TB) Dh 82,500 (Dirt) 1,900m
Winner: Lady Snazz, Richard Mullen (jockey), Satish Seemar (trainer).
7.05pm: Arabian Adventures Maiden (TB) Dh 82,500 (D) 1,200m
Winner: Zhou Storm, Connor Beasley, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
7.40pm: Emirates Skywards Handicap (TB) Dh 82,500 (D) 1,200m
Winner: Rich And Famous, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer.
8.15pm: Emirates Airline Conditions (TB) Dh 120,000 (D) 1,400m
Winner: Rio Angie, Sam Hitchcock, Doug Watson.
8.50pm: Emirates Sky Cargo (TB) Dh 92,500 (D) 1,400m
Winner: Kinver Edge, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar.
9.15pm: Emirates.com (TB) Dh 95,000 (D) 2,000m
Winner: Firnas, Xavier Ziani, Salem bin Ghadayer.
Brief scores
Day 1
Toss England, chose to bat
England, 1st innings 357-5 (87 overs): Root 184 not out, Moeen 61 not out, Stokes 56; Philander 3-46
Scores
Rajasthan Royals 160-8 (20 ov)
Kolkata Knight Riders 163-3 (18.5 ov)
The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
Confirmed%20bouts%20(more%20to%20be%20added)
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Dengue%20fever%20symptoms
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Essentials
The flights
Etihad (etihad.ae) and flydubai (flydubai.com) fly direct to Baku three times a week from Dh1,250 return, including taxes.
The stay
A seven-night “Fundamental Detox” programme at the Chenot Palace (chenotpalace.com/en) costs from €3,000 (Dh13,197) per person, including taxes, accommodation, 3 medical consultations, 2 nutritional consultations, a detox diet, a body composition analysis, a bio-energetic check-up, four Chenot bio-energetic treatments, six Chenot energetic massages, six hydro-aromatherapy treatments, six phyto-mud treatments, six hydro-jet treatments and access to the gym, indoor pool, sauna and steam room. Additional tests and treatments cost extra.
